Pink electricity crackles in the air.
Purple fragments flow through the unseen breeze.
Kiara brings up her katana, raising it over her shoulders.
Her peers stare their mouths open at what they just saw.
"A spiritual technique?" one mutters.
"Teleportation, that's a rare power to awaken," another comments.
Alwin casts a glance, dumbfounded. His mouth drew lightly open.
What was the meaning of all this?
He didn't calculate this.
His brows furrow with tension–grim, thin. His eyes slightly focus, and one corner of his lips tugs.
This has to end quickly.
"You should stop worrying about people before you die," Alwin taunts.
"Sorry," Kiara smiles. "I don't want any regrets later on."
Alwin's blade flies through the air, meeting Kiara's katana. The steel clashes hard against each other before erupting in a flurry of strikes.
I can't keep up, Kiara's thoughts race.
Alwin's eyes burned with unyielding rage. He snarled through clenched jaws, teeth bared like a wild beast. He slices downward, aiming to cut flesh. Kiara dodges, steel inches away from her.
"My bosses have been getting annoyed with me," Alwin monologues. "I've been on borrowed time because of you kids."
His body dissipates into a thin, clear smoke.
No sound.
Kiara turns her head, trying to find out where Alwin will strike. The leaves bristle through the breeze, the forest watching over Kiara.
Kiara takes a breath.
Alwin appears beneath her, blade lunges sharply, too fast to follow–aiming to tear flesh.
Kiara's eyes dilate.
Steel clashes against one another, screeching to a halt.
Alwin's eyes narrow, spotting Kiara blocking the attack with her katana.
The tip of the blade nearly slices her.
The impact lingers in her arms, nearly causing them to drop.
"I don't care," Kiara groans, her breath more ragged than before.
She clenches her hilt, steadying her stance.
Alwin leaps back, readying himself.
"You know what makes an extraordinary fighter rather than a good one?" Alwin spins in a slicing arc, blade gleaming in the sun's golden rays. "You need to bend every variable to your favor. That's what makes them strong."
Kiara's expression doesn't move. She lets go of her right hand on her katana, extending far from her side. A black mist spirals into her hand—her dagger.
Raising the weapon in the air, she hacks downward, the inner edge points forward. Alwin's pupils shrink. The serrated edge digs into his shoulder, yanking him to the floor.
"Thanks for the lesson," Kiara taunts, her head tilting sideways. She throws her dagger far away from her opponent. A loud, piercing whistle flies past her, steel nearly cutting her face.
Kiara stammers back, redirecting the next strike. In a heartbeat, her body flies through the air in a pink electric smear. Teleporting to her dagger, her feet slide into the ground, buckling under the pressure.
Her body snaps, bends, and turns into an awkward rolling position as if she were a half-folded lawn chair.
Her body crashes into a tree, and a loud crack rings out. Her peers wince.
"Gotta work on that," Kiara mutters, clenching her bruised ribs.
Adam rests his hand on Anby's shoulder. "You know how to break the barrier?"
"It's very complex, though," she stammers. "I don't know if I can—"
"Do it," Adam orders coolly. "We've got to do something."
Anby nods.
Alwin's blade crosses against Kiara's katana, their gazes meeting each other. She flicks her dagger in the opposite direction. Alwin grits his teeth as he swings his blade over his shoulder.
Kiara bends down, steel cutting her hair. It was already short anyway.
Alwin looks down.
Kiara hands him a peace sign before teleporting to her dagger in a pink electric blur.
Alwin's eyes widened, a flicker of frustration crossing his face.
Grabbing the dagger, Kiara throws it again at Alwin. Anticipating this, Alwin knocks the weapon out of his trajectory. His eye slowly tracks it flying through the air. Jumping through the air, Kiara swings her katana, locking with Alwin's.
Knocking her back, Alwin slashes through Kiara's body–her body transitioning to a blur. She teleports behind Alwin, flicking her dagger up in the air like a pair of keys. Her heart pounds with her newfound powers.
Alwin grits his teeth.
5 seconds, he calculates grimly. That's how long it takes. I have to eliminate her before 5 seconds pass, before she teleports.
He steadies his stance, grasping his blade's hilt. Raising his head, he shoots out like a bullet, a raging one charging directly at Kiara.
Stumbling on her feet, Kiara immediately throws her dagger in a random direction before lifting her katana to defend. Too fast. Alwin's crescent steel knocks her weapon out of her hands, landing in a tree top.
"Oh no," Kiara gasps, twisting and turning, trying to dodge the metal stinger of Alwin's blade. She puts her hands together, cancelling the summon katana. The weapon stuck in the tree bursts into shards of spiritual energy.
Grey blurs slices, and cuts through the air violently. Sparks dance around Kiara's body.
A wave of pink cascades over Alwin's body.
His chest heaves as his brow draws tightly together in a furrow. Every missed strike tightens the creases on his forehead—Kiara's form vanishing mere seconds before he could finish the strike.
A ghost dancing on pink sparks.
Her body slides off the moss-filled ground, nearly falling. She swipes her arm, resummoning her weapon.
She wants me to lose my composure. Alwin's mind races, clearly spiraling. She's pretending to act gullible and weak. I knew it from that day.
A flash of Kiara stunning and freezing everyone in the evaluation center with her anger and bloodlust. The look of fear on everyone's faces when she looked like she was going to kill the High Council.
That look.
That unchecked potential.
Everyone was too afraid to admit it–Kiara Meitner is a killer in hiding. A byproduct of her crazy grandfather, Edward Meitner.
"I see what you are, girl," Alwins shouts, snapping his body to face Kiara. "Everyone knew that day. Your bloodlust and rage froze everyone higher than you'll ever be."
Kiara freezes, her breath hitches.
"You're just like your grandfather–weak. Pathetic. Fake," he continues, voice cracking with frustration. "I bet he saw what you are and got scared…He couldn't save his family, and neither will you with your friends."
The words pierce through Kiara, stunning her for just a moment. The doubt whispers in the back of her mind.
Her fingers dig into her palm, her katana trembling. Her eyes lock onto Alwin, blazing with defiance.
"Don't insult my grandpa," Kiara says, voice low and steady, but fierce. Her fist flares with spiritual energy, a hot pink flowing through her. "Stop threatening my family!"
Charging forward, Kiara's katana slams into Alwin's. A sly grin pops onto his smug face.
"Oh, does it anger you, know?" Alwin says, raising his crescent blade. "Then come on, Meitner. Make your move."
Kiara's eyes narrow with focus.
Her fingers clench harder around her katana. Alwin presses his blade harder on Kiara's, pushing her back to where she started. Her feet barely touch the ground before she springs back into a counterstrike.
Sweat stings in her eyes.
Alwin parries the next flurry of strikes, sending shockwaves with each step. The air crackles under the force of Kiara's assault.
Twisting away, Alwin avoids the deadly edge.
Kiara's attacks quickly lose their sharpness, barely grazing Alwin. Mistakes start to multiply–footwork falters, guard drops, and openings dangerously widen.
Kiara angles her hilt near her head, steel pointing outward.
Alwin flicks high, aiming for an overhead strike. Kiara aims to block.
A bait.
Alwin switches from an overhead strike to a low strike to the torso. Kiara, noticing, pushes off the ground, nearly dodging the deadly stinger of Alwin's blade.
Her limbs grow sluggish–almost moving through thick, unseen molasses.
Her breath came in ragged gasps, scratching her throat with each cough.
Her spiritual energy crackles.
"Can she even use her technique?" Doran questions, watching over the battle.
"I don't know. It's teleportation," Adam says, analyzing the duel. "It requires a lot of spiritual energy to transport from point A to point B."
Alwin raises his blade, "How can you protect your family if you can't even have the endurance to fight back?"
"I don't care…about your mission!" Kiara yells, clipped yet defiant. "I don't care about what you believe in. But I won't let you hurt those close to me."
Alwin sneers, but Kiara cuts him off with words sharper than a blade.
"You don't scare me. You're not bigger than me. You're smaller than all of us, and that's why I'm not here to stop your cause."
Alwin lunges forward.
A blade whips through the air, slamming into Kiara's katana.
"You can't stop me!" Alwin cuts back, blade nearly dropping Kiara to the ground.
She wasn't just standing–she was shielding.
Alwin's footwork is relentless, shifting, pivoting, and punishing.
He twists mid-strike, feinting before slashing low with venomous speed.
Sparks flew.
The ground cracks.
Alwin's face twisted, not with focus, but with satisfaction. "Two can play that game."
Wisps curl upward. In a split second, his body turns into fine ash, carried by the wind.
He disappeared again! Kiara worries, clenching her side.
"Above!" Adam warns.
Kiara's skin prickled.
She pivots, watching as Alwin slams into the ground, blade jammed deep into the earth. Dust and smoke billow everywhere, consuming everything in its path.
Kiara crouches down, sweat pooling down her temple. Her breath comes ragged.. She lazily presses her hands into the dirt, lashing her foot out— a sharp kick to Alwin's chin.
Using the momentum, Alwin snaps back, crashing his fist into Kiara. The force builds up before shooting her across the floor, dirt and dust clinging to her.
Her breath caught–sharp, broken.
Exhaustion is finally punishing her for going beyond her limits. Her spiritual energy reserves dwindle, dying out like a flame.
Kiara glares. That same look from the evaluation center.
For a brief second, Alwin's confident stance falters. A flicker of doubt crosses his mind, but he ignores it.
Kiara's heart pounds in her chest, slamming harder with each beat. Her fist tightens, knuckles whitening. In one hand, she holds her katana, the other she builds up her remaining energy in her other hand.
Her eyes burn with unyielding rage as she charges forward. No hesitation–she refuses to yield an inch.
Alwin rolls his eyes, bringing his blade in an overhand strike. Their blades collide, bursting a shockwave of dust around them. However, Kiara's katana was the one that broke. Steel shards and sparks cascade behind Alwin.
"Inputting too little energy into your vessel will shatter," Alwin sneers, not noticing Kiara building energy into her punch. "A sword is delicate; it needs to be embedded with energy to sustain a fight. That is 101 in spiritual energy—"
His pupils dilate.
A mean uppercut slams into Alwin's sharp chin, unable to protect himself with spiritual energy. His feet draw over the ground like a video game character in a knockout with a stun effect. Kicking herself up into the air, Kiara spins and kicks Alwin right into the chest, sending him unceremoniously crashing to the floor.
His body slides and kicks and rolls over the moss before coming into a slow, gradual stop.
Kiara's peers cheer behind the barrier. Anby maintains her control, slowly cracking and chipping the barrier. Alwin slowly stands up, stumbling on his feet.
"No, I'll never stop. You think you're a special girl? I'll finish what should have happened to your family years ago," Alwin growls, cracking his neck. He holds his jaw, making sure it's not broken.
His voice drops, icy and resolute. "I'm not here for you, and this won't end until you– and your family— are dead. Down to the last drop of blood."
Kiara grits her teeth, a fierce fire burning inside her.
" D-rank, if that is the extent of your power, then this should end immediately," he continues.
He unsheathes his blade's hilt.
"Flash step," Alwin mutters.
Kiara weakly raises her katana, trying to defend herself.
A flash of a blade lunges towards her, slicing her shoulder. Alwin appears behind her, flicking his crescent steel of its excess poison. A pale green and yellowish shimmer glints through the fireplace embers.
Heat surges through Kiara's blood. Her feet stumble, slowly unshaking, uncontrollably. She falls onto the ground, quickly feeling the effects of the poison.
"Kiara!" Adam screams.
"He's too strong," Dorian states, crossing his arms. "He's too fast for us to do anything to help."
"Dude," Seth says, looking back. "This ain't the time."
A loud ear-ringing crack fires into the air around the barrier. Anby winces as she notices the large noticeable crack she made.
"That was kind of loud," Anby softly mutters, shoulders tense.
Too bad Alwin noticed as well.
He raises his pointed stinger of a blade–he walks forward, ready to end loose ends.
"Adam Lazarus. Seth Taylor," Alwin counts down, cloak swaying in the wind. "Anby Ishtar. You three also helped Kiara ruin my plans."
"Whoa, hold on—helped?" Seth stammers, raising his hands. "What do you mean by help?"
Alwin steps forward, eyes cold and blade angled at the boy.
"You, Seth Taylor, and Anby Ishtar helped Adam Lazarus and Kiara Meitner eliminate their assassins," He explains, flat and rigid. "If you two didn't exist, then Adam and Kiara would be a forgotten nuisance."
"Right, right, strength by association," Seth nods his head, crossing his arms together. "Got it, but here's the part you didn't answer. What do you mean by help?"
Silence.
Alwin's eyes twitch.
"It's the action of helping someone to do something," he yells, slamming his fist on the barrier.
"That's a vernacular definition," Seth smugly says.
Adam and the others hide Anby in the opposite direction, creating a human shield around her.
"Keep going," Adam mutters.
"Vernacular definition?" Alwin stammers, body twisting and wilding out of control. He wraps his hands over his head, trying to calm himself down. "How! How is it—what!"
"It's providing support, assistance, or resources to another unit," He screams at Seth, standing perfectly still, almost pondering to himself.
"That is the military definition," Seth explains, moving his hand like a philosopher's hand. "That's not what I'm looking for. We're not a unit."
Alwin's head rattles, fuming over the mind games.
"Helping is the act of providing resources and help to someone else's efforts!"
Seth presses his lips thinly. He shakes his head in disapproval.
Alwin's mouth drops.
"It's not a VERNACULAR definition! That's not even what vernacular even means. It's the language or dialect of ordinary—"
"What's a vernacular definition?" Seth wonders, shrugging his shoulders. Everyone shakes their heads, pretending Alwin is acting stupid.
Alwin's fist slams into the shimmering barrier, eyes glaring at Seth. The young boy backs down.
Alwin's eyes dart to all the students in the barrier, checking every single one of them. He slowly returns his gaze to Seth before suddenly remembering something—Where's Anby Ishtar?
The barrier cracks again; this time, smaller bit-sized cracks follow the big ones.
"Clever," Alwin says, spotting Kiara's reflection in the barrier.
He smoothly sidesteps out of the way of Kiara's strike. Her katana bounces off the barrier, sending her falling to the ground. Her skin was drawing pale, sweat pooling down her temple. Skin irritates, scratching harder, and contracting.
Her heart muscles tense, squeezing on her chest.
Alwin kneels over a limp Kiara, her muscles slowly start to feel lifeless, almost limp.
"That should be the paralysis and soon after that death," Alwin explains, grabbing her shoulder. He chucks Kiara's body across the campsite, her body rolling off the moss.
"Never challenge me," Alwin warns, eyes glinting with disdain. "Without a healer, you'll likely die in under 8-10 minutes."
He looks at the barrier, nearly broken under Anby's concentration.
"I almost got it," Anby says, hands shaking under the pressure.
"Time to get rid of your healer," Alwin taunts, leaving Kiara behind to die. She felt her throat trying to close itself up. Trying to stop that, she tries to breathe as hard as she can while trying to get up.
In one last maneuver, Kiara throws her dagger through the air. Alwin turns his head, the blade narrowly cutting him. Looking back, he scowls at Kiara's pathetic state.
Alwin snaps his head back. His eyes lock onto Zhang's–his hand clenching Kiara's dagger, coldly pressed on his neck. Alwin's eyes widen.
"Wait. NO–" Alwin screams.
Zhang drives the dagger forward, fingers clenching tightly. Silence draws over the lush forest. Birds flap their wings, a bubbly trill bounces off the leaves below. Crimson tears drip and pool down on the crisp fallen leaves.
Alwin's lifeless body crumbles onto the floor with a soft thud–a marionette with her strings cut. Zhang's jaw sets. No words were said. Blood pools down his lip, the poison quickly catching up.
He drops to the ground, lying next to Alwin's dead body. Kiara falls to the ground shortly after. The barrier finally breaks as the rest of Kiara's peers rush over to help the two.